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Monday, August 3, 2015

May and June ABS Challenge Pieces - Yes We are Alive

Yes - mom and I are still here. For the last month we have been on vacation with my niece and nephew, one of my fur babies passed away (I am still devastated about him passing away) and then I was at a conference. So, it has been pretty busy. I also am having a hard time getting back into blogging. I have been posting on our Facebook page and our Instagram though if you want to see what we have been up to.

Mom and I have been working in the garage and we had our first summer show. I plan on posting pics of the pieces we have made and of our show, but I thought I would share the May ABS and June ABS pieces we made.

May ABS Challenge Piece:

May Monthly Challenge-Untitled, 1926-1954, by Augustin Lesage, Oil on Canvas

Aztec Bird

When I first saw the painting all I could see was a bird shape - so mom drew up the picture of what we both saw. So we are calling the piece "Aztec Bird".

Both mom and I loved the colors in the painting - so that is what we used to enamel the pendant and then the beads are the green with the accent colors from the bird pendant. It really isn't our usual style but that is what I love about these challenges - get you out of your box.

The pendant is sawed out of 20 gauge copper that mom has fun sawing. Then we discuss the colors. Mom actually drew the pendant on a piece of paper and used colored pencils to color in the colors she wanted me to use. We have lots of colors going on - I love it.

I made two different types of beads - both have a base color of green with two different types of frit I used that I wanted to pull the colors in from the painting and pendant. The accent beads are pink Czech beads and blue glass beads.

The piece is long enough that you can just slip it on over your head. I think mom and I did really good on the collaboration of this piece.

Of course just so you know when I was enameling this piece it was almost 100 degrees in the garage - I had sweat pouring down my head and back while I was enameling this pendant and the pendants for the June ABS piece. I was not a happy camper - but I am happy with how the pieces turned out :)

June ABS Challenge Piece:

June Monthly Challene-Feuilles, 1928 By Seraphine Louis, Pigments on Canvas

Both mom and I wanted to pull in the colors from the painting and the leaf shapes. We wanted to make a it a double strand to use all the beads I made for the piece.

For the pendants I used an oval shape that we sawed out of 20 gauge copper. I then fold formed the pendant and then shaped it to look like a leaf. I then enameled it with the colors from the painting - so there are three different pinks I used on top of white enamel.

I made two types of lampwork glass beads for the piece. One has a base color of white with pink frit on top of it - the other bead is transparent with pink frit that I feathered to make the design. The accent beads are freshwater pearls and Czech beads.

I really love the colors of this piece.

So, we are up to date as of now - we didn't create a piece for July. I am looking forward to seeing what August painting will be. Maybe we can actually finish a piece before the deadline :)